A Win For Davis In Redistricting Suit Against Abbott, State

As Wendy Davis mourns the loss of her father and weighs a run for governor, she can count the recent court ruling as a victory.

David Martin Davies
/ TPR News

A Federal court in San Antonio has ruled in favor of state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, in a redistricting case that at one time threatened to dismantle her senate district.

The federal three-judge panel has decided to throw out Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s claims that the 2011 Republican-drawn map that broke down Davis' district into four to five white-dominated districts was valid.

"She stood tall and defended her constituents who were the victims of intentional discrimination and fought a very uphill battle against Gregg Abbott and [Gov.] Rick Perry and state officials who were trying to dismantle an effective coalition of Blacks and Latinos," said J. Gerald Hebert, Davis' attorney.

Davis and the League of Latin American Citizens successfully challenged the Republican dismantling of her Senate district.

"We need a ruling that points out the ways in which these plans were discriminatory so that Texas doesn’t go ahead and do the same thing in the next redistricting round," Perales said.

Perales said they are in the middle of a request that asks the San Antonio federal court for a final judgment and orders Texas be held accountable to certain sections of the Voting Rights Act that demands federal oversight to insure a similar redistricting plan does not happen in the future.